Allegro Al Dente, Pasta and Opera ~ Rinaldo Di Stasio, Jill Dupleix, Terry Durack

Allegro Al Dente features 75 pasta recipes accompanied by a CD of 15 classic operatic arias. The set came out in the 1990's when there were a few similar offerings such as 'Hot Food Cool Jazz'. Although somewhat gimmicky, it has been done very well, pairing each of the 15 songs with a pasta recipe. Puccini's 'Recondita armonia' is paired with Spaghetti con le melanzane and his 'Un bel di' from Madame Butterfly is of course paired with a butterfly pasta in Farfalle con uovo di pesce.

The recipes themselves are perfect examples of what can be done with pasta, full of rich vibrant flavours like the Pappardelle con la lepre or the subtlety of less complex flavours such as in the Tagliatelle con asparagi e uova or Fettucine al salmone affumicato. Cook them once and you'll want to cook them again and again.

Recommended for lovers of pasta, for lovers of opera, or for lovers.

- kath